Belly of the Beast Kickstarter Preview

Ben Dutter at Sigil Stone Publishing is at it again. Here is his new Kickstarter for ‘Belly of the Beast‘. Utilizing the same system from his other successful Kickstarter campaign of ‘Hunt the Wicked‘. Using a simple D6 dice system takes the strain off of the math of the system and allows you to focus on what is important, the story…and damn does it have story.

‘Belly of the Beast’ has a fantasy-horror genre with this as a tag line: “A tabletop RPG about callous survivors scavenging the abyssal guts of the world-eating Beast that consumed their home.” Say what? Yes you are a scavenger within a world-eater’s belly that has unfortunately swallowed humanity and all of its reminisce and are just trying to survive. This opens so much creativity with object and monuments that you already know about, just half digested. Want to explore the mystery of the pyramids? Well they are half eaten now, and possibly protected by other scavengers. I love this idea and the imagination possibilities are endless.

What sets this apart? Instincts. You characters are driven by instincts, just like us. This adds to the realism of the atmosphere to the game. Each character will choose from 2 of the 5 ‘Instincts’: Curiosity, Fear, Greed, Loyalty, and Violence. If you behave within a way that aligns with your chosen instincts you will gain Instinct Dice (ID). This will add to rolls for a better success rate.

On the other side, if you succumb to your instincts you will become ‘Ashamed’, and will have to atone for your deed. This just adds to the feel of realism in this setting. If you have players that love getting into and developing deep meaningful characters, this game will satisfy your desire hands down.

Here are though some details of the book taken straight from the Kickstarter site:

About 34,000 words (200 6×9″ pages)
Discusses the setting and system in great detail
Edited by Joshua Yearsley
Laid out by Phillip Gessert
Artwork by Jeff Brown and Arthur Asa
DRM-free PDF and print-on-demand

Jeff Brown and Arthur Asa absolutely captures Ben’s vision of Belly of the Beast. The artwork is gorgeous and imaginative. Definitely worth looking into investing in the hardcover you get at cost print after the project is backed. $13 gets you the DRM-free PDF.